THE second moderating influence on the competition for power
between sovereign states was provided by what was called "The
Law of Nations" or, as it began to be called early in the nineteenth
century, "International Law."

What is this international law, with which we shall be more and
more closely concerned as we approch the problem of establishing
world peace upon a firm basis?

International law, we are informed by its exponents, is the name
given to the body of rules which are considered legally binding
by civilized states in their dealings with one another.

To anyone who has followed the preceding argument it is clear
at first sight that international law is not law in the Greek or
American--not to say English or Swiss--sense of that important
word. It grew up in the age of sovereignty, when the idea of
basing power upon the consent of the people was unknown, or
had died out, over the greater part of Europe. The fact that the
word "law" has become attached to it is due to the survival in
the minds of its exponents, and especially of the great Dutch
writer Grotius, of the Stoic concept of natural law. Writing in
an age of general European war, it seemed to Grotius that the
competition between sovereigns for power, unrestrained by any
limiting factor, was "unnatural," contrary to the nature of things,
to the cosmic order, and to the nature of man himself. "There are
some notions so certain," he wrote, "that no one can deny them
without doing violence to his own nature." There must therefore,
in the nature of things, be some limiting or restraining factor and
to this Grotius, following the Stoic philosophers, gave the name
of law; no doubt, he hoped that this august appellation would
awaken some faint spark of awe or reverence in the minds of
self-centered sovereigns.

We cannot pause to deal more fully with the concept of natural
law, which is still a powerful intellectual and moral influence in

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